Young people ‘should do National Service or lose benefits'
Young unemployed people should be forced to enrol in National Service or face losing their benefits, the former chairman of Tesco has said.
John Allan said the Government should exercise a 'bit of coercion' to get young people into the workforce as the number of people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) soars.
Mr Allan, who was also served as the chairman of Barratt Developments, one of Britain's biggest homebuilders, told Times Radio that Neets should be pushed to do military training or municipal work.
Mr Allan said: 'You could make some benefit payments conditional, particularly in that age group on people really seeking work.
'You could find work for people to do municipal work.
'I think getting people into the habit of getting out of bed in the morning, going and doing some useful work is very habit-forming once people have done it for a while.
'Or we could reintroduce military training for people who are not working. That would be a way of actually helping us with, you know, stepping up our defence capability as well, which is another important issue.'
It comes as Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has drawn up plans to save £5bn from a benefits crackdown as the Chancellor scrambles to balance the books in her Spring Statement on Wednesday.
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are classed at Neets has surged by nearly a quarter since the pandemic began and now totals nearly 1m – the highest level since records began in 2013.
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